COSTS: Death Penalty Cases in Colorado Take Six Times Longer Than Life Sentences

A new study of the cost of the death penal­ty in Colorado revealed that cap­i­tal pro­ceed­ings require six times more days in court and take much longer to resolve than life-with­out-parole (LWOP) cas­es. The study, pub­lished in the University of Denver Criminal Law Review, found that LWOP cas­es required an aver­age of 24.5 days of in-court time, while the death-penal­ty cas­es required 147.6 days. The authors not­ed that select­ing a jury in an LWOP case takes about a day and a half; in a cap­i­tal case, jury selec­tion aver­ages 26 days. In mea­sur­ing the com­par­a­tive time it takes to go from charg­ing a defen­dant to final sen­tenc­ing, the study found that LWOP cas­es took an aver­age of 526 days to com­plete; death cas­es took almost 4 cal­en­dar years longer–1,902 days. The study found that even when a death-penal­ty case ends in a plea agree­ment and a life sen­tence, the process takes a year and a half longer than an LWOP case with a tri­al. The authors, Justin Marceau (pic­tured) and Hollis Whitson, could find no evi­dence of deter­rence from the state’s death penal­ty and thus con­clud­ed, ​“Our find­ings are unequiv­o­cal: Colorado’s death penal­ty impos­es tremen­dous costs on tax­pay­ers and its ben­e­fits are, at best, spec­u­la­tive, and more like­ly, illusory.” 

Justin F. Marceau is an Associate Professor at the University of Denver, Sturm College of Law. Hollis A. Whitson is a lawyer in Denver, Colorado.

(J. Marceau and H. Whitson, ​“The Cost of Colorado’s Death Penalty,” 3 Univ. of Denver Criminal Law Review 145 (2013); DPIC post­ed Sept. 4, 2013). See Costs and Studies on the death penalty.